11:52 Am, Planet Miranda, Horus City, Alliance Manufacturing Lab. A young boy was strapped to a table...his brilliant blue eyes held open by a steel spreader. His pupils flicked back and forth trying to see anything but the needle approaching them. Its all consuming looming form approaching slowly. His parents had given him up for adoption, a better life, in a school, with siblings. Siblings who were all dead, their twisted torn remains all about him in large cold tubes. He feels the stamp at the back of his neck softly. Its soft and warm like a mother's kiss briefly comforting him before its searing heat burns a mark into his flesh. All he can do is pray for something to save him, someone..."Mommy..." He slowly and piteously cries, a cry which peaks into a shriek as the needle pierces into him and begins to slow descent into his eye. No, there can't be any sedatives, just pain killers, its part of his conditioning. His heart flutters then begins to churn his blood, sending it boling through his body as his hips raise from the table and the needle's end spreads out to sever the nerve at the back of his eye before it is plucked viciously from his head. "Ahhh" Xeno cried as he shot upwards the middle of the night sweating profusely. The cold sheen on his body and his soaked bed indicated it had been a while. Tiny droplets ran down the curves of his stomach as he leaned forward and clutched his head. His deep red yet fiery eyes were open and staring down into the valley of sheet between the peaks of his knees. Curling up he sobbed slightly. His fingers trailed over the guillotine cross on the nape of his neck. Its surface raised just slightly above that of his flesh its black steely surface a stark contrast to his tan skin.

No one held regular hours in the Black, you slept when you were tired and you kept awake when the silence of the ship made you restless. Hawk Firestone took a sip of what was the last dregs of the coffee and pulled a wry face at the taste, setting it aside. She sat in the cockpit of the ship, hands moving lightly over the thrusters to keep the ship on a true course. Small tokens of her travel dotted the console, a small figurine of a Acarin Dancer in mid turn, a little dinosaur that made only a reedy squeal instead of it's once full throated roar, and a model of a Starbringer ship, one the woman knew intimately, she had flown one in the War. Shifting in her seat, she grimaced slightly back paining a moment as she stood, placing the ship's controls on auto-pilot a moment. Walking to the kitchen she brewed some new coffee and paused, lips pursing into a frown as a distant cry reached her ears. She moved quickly to Xeno's bunk and rapped on the door "Xeno....are ye alright?" she asked, not entering just yet, concern weighing in her dark blue green eyes.

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

Xeno sat up and tapped the panel on the wall. The lights clicked on as he did so revealing a large number of crossing scars. Almost like a lattice of them. However unlike the brutal or torn scars that adorned his captain's body these were intricate patterns. They were directly made in the flesh, the remainder of hundreds of surgeries to his body from childhood to his early teen years. He pulled out his sink and washed his face quickly before he pulled on a pair of bottoms. His muscular frame was oddly toned, to the point of almost inhuman definition, muscles on his body shaped as if a sculptor has simply drawn velvety smooth skin forcefully over marble and stretched it to fit it perfectly. He slowly walked to his door and climbed the ladder up to it before pulling it inwards and looking up to her. "I'm just fine darlin..just fine."

The woman's eyes adjusted in a few moments, from the shadowy dim of the hall to the flare of light from the open door. Her back straightened and the woman folded her arms, the "I don't believe you" expression stamped clearly onto her face as she looked him over. "Really. Ye're drenched in sweat, ye're pupils are wide, and ye have that tense little smile that says everything is alright. Which is utter go-se. So...was it a dream again?" she asked, not believing him for a moment. The tightness around her mouth softened a fraction and she sighed "Come on, want a drink?" she queried, even if Xeno didn't want to speak of the dream and hell, she couldn't blame it, it wasn't usually a bad idea to get him out of his room. Ghosts of a nightmare haunted you more vividly when you were alone after all.

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

"Yeah, I know...I saw a rat..it was terrifying." He said in a dry sarcastic tone while he finished climbing up the ladder and looked to her. "Maybe if you'd have been there to hold me then I wouldn't have been so scared." He said slowly as he walked past her. "Sure a drink would be nice..maybe something hot and chocolate flavored." He added as he slowly made his way down the hall his feet on its balls like that of a dancer or a swordsman at the ready. He didn't wear shoes much of the time, his feet like the rest of his body was rather hardened to the touch yet smooth. His eyes glowed slightly in the low light of the hallway. He didn't bother to put in his contacts on the ship. She'd known him for years, he didn't see the need to do as such

A small smile took over the disbelieving look and the woman nodded, eyes grave "Av course, space rats are mortal terrors ye know." she replied, reaching out and placing a hand on his shoulder carefully "MAybe, or I'dve shot the rat and made a mess." she added, still smiling. She walked alongside him, her own step measured and comfortable as they entered the kitchen. The woman moved about the kitchen, making two cups of processed hot chocolate, setting one down in front of him. Taking a seat, she looked at him, her own blue green eyes resting on his softly glowing ones, giving him time to speak if needed.

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

"Terror indeed, I thought that we'd gotten rid of them and there was just the one big one left that I needed to pilot the ship." He said with a snicker before he made his way with her into the kitchen. Sitting down he sighed softly and didn't speak he simply picked up the cup and took a sip. He was able to drink it easily. Experiments had made his body temperature much higher than that of an ordinary person. He had little of anything that could be called ordinary anymore. IT was all organic, but that didn't mean it was all really him.

She tilted her head, a bit of a curious look in her eyes 'Ye're not calling me a gigantic rat, are ye? After all, I pilot this ship." she replied and blew softly at her drink, sipping it as it cooled. Silence filled the small homey kitchen, a companionable kind that was a comfort in the night-cycle. She let that reign for a good while, eyes half closed in a mix of relaxation and weariness "We should be at Peyton in about six hours, we can land in and see about that job that O'Conor offered us." she remarked softly, they needed some credits and this job seemed the best way to get it.

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

"Oh..I forgot you could talk." He said with a snicker and a soft smile as he looked across to her shaking his head slightly before he leaned in and stroked his fingers along her cheek. "I would be nothing and nowhere without you." He said to her slowly as he laughed softly before he sat back and sighed taking a gulp from his drink. Looking her over he sighed and gently trailed his fingers through his hair in though. "Yeah we will be there..but what tricks will he have up his sleeve now. Last time he tried to get you to come over to his side." He added curtly while shaking his head.

She grinned faintly, touched by his words and simply glad for his presence. It got lonely enough in the Black, lonelier still if you kept off planet as much as Hawk did. Having a Alliance fugitive tended to make planet stops short and sweet, it wasn't only Xeno either, with Hawk's own larcenist record it wouldn't be wise to be moving in the wrong circles. "He did. And last time I punched him in the face." she replied, tone just as cool. A faint grin passed over her face "Should be interestin'" she added, the glimmer of the Captain's thirst for adventure stirring in her eyes.

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

He laughed softly as he looked to her and shok his head. "Well its not the kind of thing that seemed to mind that much. I seem to remember a certain drunk naked woman running up and down the halls." He replied with a snicker before he stroked his fingers through his hair and down to the side of his neck slowly while shaking his head. "Interesting doesn't quite cover it." He replied with a slight snicker as he stretched in his seat.

"A woman? Hm, ye may have been seeing wrong. Seems that I remember it as it being ye the one running in the halls." she replied, tilting her head. She gave a nod at his words "It will be indeed, let's hope I don't get myself shot this time." she added with a wry smile.

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

"I was fucking sexy doing it too...you know you loved it." He said with a nod and a laugh. Shaking his head he slowly leaned it back and looked up at the poly glass ceiling. "Hhmm, we shall see." He said as he looked towards her. He remembered it, he'd had to pull the slug from just above her heart with a knife then carry her back to the ship. It was all at once an amusing yet harrowing memory of what he could have lost.

"The pinnacle av manliness." she replied dryly, resting against the back of the seat a moment. "Aye we will, I'll wave him again later, hopefully get a bead on what he wants." she commented and sighed, pressing a hand against her chest, where the faint raised mark rested. She vaguely recalled getting shot and swearing a blue streak later on at Xeno, angered by how things had gone and the loss of the job. The memory of the pain and blood streaming over her chest as the knife dug in had faded thankfully, but it still left a slight chill.

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

"You know it." He said slowly before he stroked his fingers along his stomach while he sighed and shook his head. He remembered that, he'd thought she was going to die and said alot of things that should have been kept buried. Things that one didn't say to someone they intended to have a business relationship with. He looked down to the table before he sighed and slowly rose up. "Yeah, I'ma go and do some training or something." He added with a nod.

It was perhaps lucky that the woman hardly remembered what had happened. Anything that Xeno had said dissolved into white noise and the woman was baffled at the time of her recovery where he seemed distant and cool as he had when they had first met. It hadn't added up just yet that he had indeed been worried over her, more so then a hired hand. "Aye, enjoy, I'll go Wave O'Conor." she replied and stood, placing her cup in the sink, heading to the bridge once more.

(Want to play their business fellow?)

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

He made his way out of the room without shifting his cup at all before he left. He then made his way down the the hangar where he could practice in peace. Slowly he shifted the boxes into a circle before leaping over them into the middle. Curling up almost he pushed his arms outward suddenly and the boxes darted backwards.

(Sure)

Sitting by a console Jules O'Conor waited for his contact. His eyes looked back and forth slightly nervous about the communication.

His footsteps faded from her hearing and she entereed the cockpit, the Wave Screen flickering a moment before she was looking at Jules O'Conor, a smile crossing her face, eyes flickering with a faint light of one meeting an old rival. He had shot her after all. "Hullo there O'Conor." she commented, voice cool and calm, eyes looking into his.

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

"Hello there darling." He said with a slight nod while occasionally glancing about. "How are your lot faring, I've got a job for you topside. I need you to swipe a machine for me, its rather small but its got quite the price to it. I'll pay you double what you could ever trade it in for, thing is I need it by sundown." He said with a slow nod.

Her eyes hardened a bit at the word 'darling', call her petty but she hadn't quite forgiven him for shooting her. "We're fine, shipshape even. This machine, what's it for, and where is it?" she asked. "Do ye need the cash for the machine, or the thing itself?" she questioned further.

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

"Just the machine, your payment will be wired to you half before half after." He said with a nod as he sat back and sighed softly. "So yes..erm I'll transmit the coordinates and I'll see you once the job is complete, you have till sundown once again." HE said with another nod before he glanced suddenly to his left. "Oh and make sure Xeno is with you at all times, its kinda tricky to get the machine."

"Alright, wave me the coordinates and where ye want to meet. The job'll be done, no worries." she replied with a nod. A faint tingle of suspicion moved in the back of her mind and she held onto it "Not a problem, we done?" she asked, wanting more information to think up a plan.

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

"Yeah we are." He said as he clicked off the screen and wheeled his chair to look to the right. There stood two men in black suits with what appeared to be blue gloves on their hands. "Is that it...we done?" He asked them hesitantly. "I don't know why you want Xenophon but I want the girl.." He added with a slight narrowing of his eyes. The two silently nodded and then proceeded to walk towards the door. "And the money..don't forget." He cried out after them.

Hawk settled back against the seat, eyes thoughtful. She didn't trust O'Conor as far as she could throw him and something about this deal made her uneasy. Privately she thought it would be best to see the situation for herself, where the machine was, how hard it would be to get to before calling Xeno in. After all there always was the risk of the Alliance nabbing Xeno again, something that she'd fight tooth and nail for. Drumming her fingers on her knee, she stood and put the ship into auto pilot, before heading to speak to Xeno, deep in though.

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

He sat now in the middle of the circle. Legs crossed he hovered a single inch off the ground. He held it there with sweat beading on his forehead as he attempted to maintain absolute concentration. He'd learned to make bursts but not to manipulate endurance. He took each breath in deeply and exhaled slowly focusing on only himself his eyes closed his mind clear as he did so.